MrsChezek
Eagerly Expecting #2
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I'm a bit late posting this as it took me a while to recover from my delivery, but here is my birth story! Better late than never 
MY BIRTH STORY
Sometime after dinner on Wednesday 2/20, I started feeling PMS like cramps in my lower abs and some mild lower back pain. It wasn't bad at all and by the time I went to bed, it was still there and a bit stronger. It made me wonder if this meant anything and I remember thinking that it's great timing cause I'll get a nice full night of sleep before things kick off. Well, when I woke up in the morning, the cramps were pretty strong and I felt really uncomfortable. I had my weekly doctor appointment at 11:30am so I figured I'd just wait until then to see my doc. It was hard to get through breakfast, showering, etc and I definitely had to stop and breathe through some of these cramps. On top of all that, I had (TMI) diarrhea twice throughout the morning which is very unusual for me as someone with IBS with constipation!
At the doctor's office, they hooked me up to the EFM and these cramps were showing up as contractions. They were about 2-5 minutes apart and lasting 30-60 seconds. They were much stronger than my previous ones but not off the chart or anything. The doc didn't seem concerned as they weren't regular enough and I seemed to be handling them just fine. The baby did great through all of them as well with no dips in heart rate so I guess all was good. We left the office with a see you Monday unless of course things do progress!
By about 3pm that day, the contractions subsided and by evening they were totally gone. I went to bed assuming that was simply false labor and that was it for now. At about 2am, I woke up having to have to pee. I noticed the PMS like cramps were back but once again were pretty mild, so I went back to sleep. I woke up again 3 more times to pee and each time I thought the cramps were getting a bit stronger. At about 5:30am, I woke up again and my lower back pain came back as well. I was a bit nauseated and I thought maybe I was hungry so I asked Robert to get me a glass of warm milk (this usually soothes my stomach). At about 6:30am, he offered to get me a heat pack as I seemed to be restless. As I'm not supposed to wear it for more than 20 minutes at a time, I laid there half awake. Suddenly I heard a pop and felt a kick like sensation in my lower pelvis - my heart jumped cause I thought she had flipped and was now breech! Then, I remembered a friend of mine who delivered the weekend before, heard a pop when her water broke! Before I could process all this, I felt warm water gush down my legs and all over the bed. I jumped up and woke up Robert shouting 'my water broke!'. He jumped out of bed and got me a towel. We had bought hospital waterproof bed pads so I had one of those underneath my butt area but the water got all over the place anyway. Luckily, we had stuck the waterproof crib liner underneath the sheets on my part of the mattress just days before so the mattress was unharmed. Since I was lying down, the water just kept gushing out and we went through 4-5 pads! It was really freaky but not painful at all; also, all my contractions and lower back pain stopped.
Since I was feeling totally symptom free (other than the water leaking out still), I got up and posted on my pregnancy journal and felt totally calm. We figured we had 8-24 hours before I'd go into active labor so we started packing up our hospital bag. We made a list days earlier so we started gathering the things on it. However, about 30 minutes later, my contractions restarted and kept increasing in intensity at a very rapid pace. I suddenly felt the need to poop and remember thinking that was great so I wouldn't poop during birth! Soon enough, I couldn't move much so I just lied on the bed timing the contractions with a pregnancy iPhone app while Robert packed things. I pooped 2 more times. By about 8am, I had been timing them for only 30 minutes but the pain was becoming unbearable. I stopped Robert from packing and asked that he stay with me and guide me through the contractions. Another 10 minutes later, the contractions became way too intense and we felt that they were too close together to wait out the hour and see if we hit the 4-1-1; so we called our doctor. He said to go ahead and come into the hospital as he was already there.
At this point, things get fuzzy cause I was in extreme pain and the contractions were 2-3 minutes apart, lasting 45-75 seconds. Robert was running around in between contractions trying to gather the most important bits (cord blood kit, our IDs, etc) so he can't remember too much either. But eventually, he got me dressed - I kept my pj top, threw on a pair of old fleece xmas PJ bottoms (only thing that fit easily over my undies that were stuffed with a hospital waterproof pad as I didn't get a chance to buy maxi pads and I'm a tampon wearer!!!) and a pair of slippers. We decided to time the trip to the car in between contractions. Robert packed and prepped the car and then we got up to go immediately after a contraction. Unfortunately, we only made it to the foot of our bed before another contraction kicked in and I dropped to the floor and lied on our dog's bed for that one - our poor puppy was so freaked out she kept licking my legs and looking so sad!!! We then got up and made a dash for the car, stopping once more near the door for another contraction.
As soon as I got into the car, I had another contraction - this one in the cold car was awful. I was only wearing a sweatshirt as we forgot to grab me a jacket! I rode in the back seat lying down and had 4 more contractions during the 10 minute trip to the hospital. Luckily, our hospital has valet parking so Robert was able to drive up and just shout for someone to get me a wheelchair. Unfortunately, I barely made it into the hospital foyer before I jumped out of the chair onto the nearest bench to breathe through another contraction. I faintly remember several people standing around in that foyer but I just didn't' care! The thought itself of sitting through another contraction was too much. We then walked into the hospital and up to the registration desk. I then realized that the hospital pad I was wearing inside my underwear was sticking out all around my waist and I looked like I was wearing a giant diaper! No wonder everyone was staring at me.
The registration desk lady told me to sit back in the wheelchair and head to labor and delivery down the hall. When we got to the security desk there, I was in so much pain that I asked Robert to stop the wheelchair for the next contraction. However, the security guard was having none of it and grabbed my wheelchair and pushed me into labor and delivery saying 'she is not having this baby out here!'. Once through the doors, my doctor was right there and after one look at me said let's skip triage, grabbed the wheelchair with me in it and zoomed off to a labor room with Robert in tow. At this point, my eyes were closed so I have no visual of any of this happening - just the sounds in my head. I was told to change into a gown and then the doc did a cervical check - I was 7-8cm dilated! *gasp* This was around 9:15am. He then told the labor nurse to take my blood and said that we can do patient registration later. The nurse then attempted to draw about 7 vials of blood from my arm while I was having contractions - trying hard to hold my arm still so she doesn't poke the needle through it was awful! Afterward, I just stayed on the bed and tried to breathe through the contractions. I did not want to be moved or to change positions - the jacuzzi was just across the hall but I was almost afraid to move as the contractions I had while going to car and in the wheelchair were much worse than the ones while lying down. Seemed like all the training we did about different positions just went out the door! I simply refused to move. Around this time, I apparently asked for an epidural but Robert just ignored me - I don't remember this but he said I asked twice. At about 9:55am, I started pushing…I just felt this need to push the baby out. Mostly, it felt like I needed to poop. I also started grunting and making these guttural sounds that were very loud. I just didn't care! It was this weird experience where I was doing all that while half processing it in my head. I felt like I was outside myself watching it unfold and thinking that everything was just like in the videos we saw and the books we read!
After a couple of contractions of pushing, the nurse called my doc who was in the OR with a scheduled c-section. He rushed down to our room just as our friend Jenny arrived, my second support person. She was at work already when we texted her and didn't have her car that day so she had to take a cab all the way to our hospital!!! I pushed for about an hour until the baby started crowning. I don't really remember this first hour - whether it hurt or not. But at one point, everyone said that they can see her and in a few more pushes she'll be here…well, 30 minutes later, they were saying the same thing but I starting to doubt them. I kept pushing but it felt like nothing was happening. I was getting very very tired as I had not eaten anything since dinner the night before and I was only given apple juice since we got to the hospital. The contractions didn't hurt as much and it did feel good to push, but after 45 minutes of crowning, I was losing hope. I thought she was stuck or not ever going to come out! The doc was doing perennial massage in between contractions, which hurt like hell, but that still wasn't helping. So finally, he started helping me push by pushing on the baby's head from below - no idea how but it felt like he was in my butt pulling on her head. It hurt A LOT.
Finally, after an HOUR of crowning, Hayden Alexis was born at 11:55am on Friday 2/22/2013. The doc wanted to plop her right on me as he pulled her out, but I said no. I needed a moment to gather my strength. I was exhausted and in a lot of pain. However, I was so happy that she finally came out as they were about to start prepping me for a c section as her heart rate had dropped to 85 bpm. Eventually, they put Hayden on my tummy after wiping her down a tad bit and we did skin to skin for about an hour. She did the breast crawl really well and once latched on, she nursed for quite some time. She was super cute with a nose squished to one side from sitting down low in my pelvis for so many weeks. The doc put in a couple stitches and that was it. Or should I say that was the beginning of the two weeks of hell.
Recovery was super slow and painful. I still can barely sit on my bum and it's been 3.5 weeks. I'm still undecided if I would do all this again but I have no regrets for taking the pain med free vaginal delivery route. One thing I do regret is that I knew that I was in a bad position during the pushing phase - my sacrum was flat on the bed and only my upper body was lifted up. But I was just too tired and in too much pain to voice this. Robert didn't notice as he was busy helping me breathe and holding up my legs. I know that if I was sitting upright more, Hayden would have come out much quicker and I wouldn't have suffered as much damage. But that's something to keep in mind for next time…IF there ever will be a next time! It will take a while for me to forget all this and contemplate doing it all again…
MY BIRTH STORY
Sometime after dinner on Wednesday 2/20, I started feeling PMS like cramps in my lower abs and some mild lower back pain. It wasn't bad at all and by the time I went to bed, it was still there and a bit stronger. It made me wonder if this meant anything and I remember thinking that it's great timing cause I'll get a nice full night of sleep before things kick off. Well, when I woke up in the morning, the cramps were pretty strong and I felt really uncomfortable. I had my weekly doctor appointment at 11:30am so I figured I'd just wait until then to see my doc. It was hard to get through breakfast, showering, etc and I definitely had to stop and breathe through some of these cramps. On top of all that, I had (TMI) diarrhea twice throughout the morning which is very unusual for me as someone with IBS with constipation!
At the doctor's office, they hooked me up to the EFM and these cramps were showing up as contractions. They were about 2-5 minutes apart and lasting 30-60 seconds. They were much stronger than my previous ones but not off the chart or anything. The doc didn't seem concerned as they weren't regular enough and I seemed to be handling them just fine. The baby did great through all of them as well with no dips in heart rate so I guess all was good. We left the office with a see you Monday unless of course things do progress!
By about 3pm that day, the contractions subsided and by evening they were totally gone. I went to bed assuming that was simply false labor and that was it for now. At about 2am, I woke up having to have to pee. I noticed the PMS like cramps were back but once again were pretty mild, so I went back to sleep. I woke up again 3 more times to pee and each time I thought the cramps were getting a bit stronger. At about 5:30am, I woke up again and my lower back pain came back as well. I was a bit nauseated and I thought maybe I was hungry so I asked Robert to get me a glass of warm milk (this usually soothes my stomach). At about 6:30am, he offered to get me a heat pack as I seemed to be restless. As I'm not supposed to wear it for more than 20 minutes at a time, I laid there half awake. Suddenly I heard a pop and felt a kick like sensation in my lower pelvis - my heart jumped cause I thought she had flipped and was now breech! Then, I remembered a friend of mine who delivered the weekend before, heard a pop when her water broke! Before I could process all this, I felt warm water gush down my legs and all over the bed. I jumped up and woke up Robert shouting 'my water broke!'. He jumped out of bed and got me a towel. We had bought hospital waterproof bed pads so I had one of those underneath my butt area but the water got all over the place anyway. Luckily, we had stuck the waterproof crib liner underneath the sheets on my part of the mattress just days before so the mattress was unharmed. Since I was lying down, the water just kept gushing out and we went through 4-5 pads! It was really freaky but not painful at all; also, all my contractions and lower back pain stopped.
Since I was feeling totally symptom free (other than the water leaking out still), I got up and posted on my pregnancy journal and felt totally calm. We figured we had 8-24 hours before I'd go into active labor so we started packing up our hospital bag. We made a list days earlier so we started gathering the things on it. However, about 30 minutes later, my contractions restarted and kept increasing in intensity at a very rapid pace. I suddenly felt the need to poop and remember thinking that was great so I wouldn't poop during birth! Soon enough, I couldn't move much so I just lied on the bed timing the contractions with a pregnancy iPhone app while Robert packed things. I pooped 2 more times. By about 8am, I had been timing them for only 30 minutes but the pain was becoming unbearable. I stopped Robert from packing and asked that he stay with me and guide me through the contractions. Another 10 minutes later, the contractions became way too intense and we felt that they were too close together to wait out the hour and see if we hit the 4-1-1; so we called our doctor. He said to go ahead and come into the hospital as he was already there.
At this point, things get fuzzy cause I was in extreme pain and the contractions were 2-3 minutes apart, lasting 45-75 seconds. Robert was running around in between contractions trying to gather the most important bits (cord blood kit, our IDs, etc) so he can't remember too much either. But eventually, he got me dressed - I kept my pj top, threw on a pair of old fleece xmas PJ bottoms (only thing that fit easily over my undies that were stuffed with a hospital waterproof pad as I didn't get a chance to buy maxi pads and I'm a tampon wearer!!!) and a pair of slippers. We decided to time the trip to the car in between contractions. Robert packed and prepped the car and then we got up to go immediately after a contraction. Unfortunately, we only made it to the foot of our bed before another contraction kicked in and I dropped to the floor and lied on our dog's bed for that one - our poor puppy was so freaked out she kept licking my legs and looking so sad!!! We then got up and made a dash for the car, stopping once more near the door for another contraction.
As soon as I got into the car, I had another contraction - this one in the cold car was awful. I was only wearing a sweatshirt as we forgot to grab me a jacket! I rode in the back seat lying down and had 4 more contractions during the 10 minute trip to the hospital. Luckily, our hospital has valet parking so Robert was able to drive up and just shout for someone to get me a wheelchair. Unfortunately, I barely made it into the hospital foyer before I jumped out of the chair onto the nearest bench to breathe through another contraction. I faintly remember several people standing around in that foyer but I just didn't' care! The thought itself of sitting through another contraction was too much. We then walked into the hospital and up to the registration desk. I then realized that the hospital pad I was wearing inside my underwear was sticking out all around my waist and I looked like I was wearing a giant diaper! No wonder everyone was staring at me.
The registration desk lady told me to sit back in the wheelchair and head to labor and delivery down the hall. When we got to the security desk there, I was in so much pain that I asked Robert to stop the wheelchair for the next contraction. However, the security guard was having none of it and grabbed my wheelchair and pushed me into labor and delivery saying 'she is not having this baby out here!'. Once through the doors, my doctor was right there and after one look at me said let's skip triage, grabbed the wheelchair with me in it and zoomed off to a labor room with Robert in tow. At this point, my eyes were closed so I have no visual of any of this happening - just the sounds in my head. I was told to change into a gown and then the doc did a cervical check - I was 7-8cm dilated! *gasp* This was around 9:15am. He then told the labor nurse to take my blood and said that we can do patient registration later. The nurse then attempted to draw about 7 vials of blood from my arm while I was having contractions - trying hard to hold my arm still so she doesn't poke the needle through it was awful! Afterward, I just stayed on the bed and tried to breathe through the contractions. I did not want to be moved or to change positions - the jacuzzi was just across the hall but I was almost afraid to move as the contractions I had while going to car and in the wheelchair were much worse than the ones while lying down. Seemed like all the training we did about different positions just went out the door! I simply refused to move. Around this time, I apparently asked for an epidural but Robert just ignored me - I don't remember this but he said I asked twice. At about 9:55am, I started pushing…I just felt this need to push the baby out. Mostly, it felt like I needed to poop. I also started grunting and making these guttural sounds that were very loud. I just didn't care! It was this weird experience where I was doing all that while half processing it in my head. I felt like I was outside myself watching it unfold and thinking that everything was just like in the videos we saw and the books we read!
After a couple of contractions of pushing, the nurse called my doc who was in the OR with a scheduled c-section. He rushed down to our room just as our friend Jenny arrived, my second support person. She was at work already when we texted her and didn't have her car that day so she had to take a cab all the way to our hospital!!! I pushed for about an hour until the baby started crowning. I don't really remember this first hour - whether it hurt or not. But at one point, everyone said that they can see her and in a few more pushes she'll be here…well, 30 minutes later, they were saying the same thing but I starting to doubt them. I kept pushing but it felt like nothing was happening. I was getting very very tired as I had not eaten anything since dinner the night before and I was only given apple juice since we got to the hospital. The contractions didn't hurt as much and it did feel good to push, but after 45 minutes of crowning, I was losing hope. I thought she was stuck or not ever going to come out! The doc was doing perennial massage in between contractions, which hurt like hell, but that still wasn't helping. So finally, he started helping me push by pushing on the baby's head from below - no idea how but it felt like he was in my butt pulling on her head. It hurt A LOT.
Finally, after an HOUR of crowning, Hayden Alexis was born at 11:55am on Friday 2/22/2013. The doc wanted to plop her right on me as he pulled her out, but I said no. I needed a moment to gather my strength. I was exhausted and in a lot of pain. However, I was so happy that she finally came out as they were about to start prepping me for a c section as her heart rate had dropped to 85 bpm. Eventually, they put Hayden on my tummy after wiping her down a tad bit and we did skin to skin for about an hour. She did the breast crawl really well and once latched on, she nursed for quite some time. She was super cute with a nose squished to one side from sitting down low in my pelvis for so many weeks. The doc put in a couple stitches and that was it. Or should I say that was the beginning of the two weeks of hell.
Recovery was super slow and painful. I still can barely sit on my bum and it's been 3.5 weeks. I'm still undecided if I would do all this again but I have no regrets for taking the pain med free vaginal delivery route. One thing I do regret is that I knew that I was in a bad position during the pushing phase - my sacrum was flat on the bed and only my upper body was lifted up. But I was just too tired and in too much pain to voice this. Robert didn't notice as he was busy helping me breathe and holding up my legs. I know that if I was sitting upright more, Hayden would have come out much quicker and I wouldn't have suffered as much damage. But that's something to keep in mind for next time…IF there ever will be a next time! It will take a while for me to forget all this and contemplate doing it all again…
